How was your weekend? Mine was interesting to say the least. On Saturday morning, I spent an hour or so at the huge Oxfam Book Sale that arrives in Eltham every couple of years. I didn't find much to interest me, so after choosing a few light novels, my back was aching so much I decided to get out of there and go home to relax with one of the books. Ken was getting ready to go on a message of his own, and asked if I wanted to come along for the drive. I figured I would be sitting down, so I may as well go with him.
Message accomplished, we were on the way home, and getting near Westfield shopping centre in Doncaster. Ken had an ABC Shop gift voucher to spend, so we stopped in to Dymocks and he used it to buy the Yellowstone documentary DVD, which we hadn't seen, but heard rave reports about it from friends. Closer to home, we were discussing what plants we still wanted for our back yard, and I suggested that we stop in at The Greenery Nursery, not far from home. We came away with half a dozen plants, and finally arrived home a lot later than what we'd anticipated!
I put a piece of corned beef on the stove to cook slowly, and joined Ken in the back yard to decide where to place our new plants. I put two in, and Ken was digging a hole for the third when all of a sudden - WHOOOSH! and water shot up into the air. He'd hit a PVC water pipe! I rushed down the steps to the front yard and turned the water supply off at the mains. Ken was madly scooping water out of the hole he'd dug, to try and see how much damage he'd done. The hose was only cut half way through, but water was still trickling through. I brought a big piece of rag to tie around it in an effort to stem the flow, while Ken hopped in the car and raced down to Bunnings the hardware store in Eltham. By this time it was 5.45 pm and they close at 6 pm. He got there in time, and a sympathetic salesman quickly found the bits and pieces Ken needed to fix the pipe.
Back home, I was scooping water away, and digging around the pipe to make room for Ken to work. He came up the back yard path, puffing and looking grey. I made him sit down and rest before he started fixing the leak - he looked like he was about to pass out! It took about 10 minutes to fix the pipe, and once done, we sat back and looked at each other, both of us covered with mud! By then it was 8 pm - thank goodness for daylight saving - and we went inside to clean up and finally have tea at nearly 9 pm! Here are the plants we bought and planted before and after all the drama.
We needed something to provide colour over a rock retaining wall. I've never seen this Trailing Lotus before, but it is very pretty and will look great if it spreads itself over a large area of rocks.
This innocent little plant was the one waiting to be planted when Ken struck the pipe. It had better be worth the trouble it caused!
Another plant we don't know anything about, but hopefully it will provide a nice spot of colour.
Australian native Boronia has an exquisite perfume, so we've located this just near the clothesline outside the back door.
As for the rest of the weekend: Ken went to Phillip Island for the Aust. Motorcycle Grand Prix on Sunday, and I went to a needlework tapestry exhibition with a friend. Photos of that exhibition are on my other blog (Patra's Place) and Casey Stoner will be the cause for celebrations all this week by motorcyclists around Australia!
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